John Gibson Lockhart
John Gibson Lockhart (12 July 1794 - 25 November 1854) was a Scottish biographer, editor, and literary critic, best known as the biographer of Sir Walter Scott. Life Overview Lockhart, son of a minister of the Church of Scotland of good family, was born at Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire, and educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He studied law at Edinbirgh, and was called to the Scottish Bar in 1816, but had little taste for the profession. Having, however, already tried literature (he had translated Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature), he devoted himself more and more to a literary life. He joined John Wilson, and became a leading contributor to Blackwood's Magazine. After bringing out Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk (1819), sketches mainly of Edinburgh society, he produced 4 novels, Valerius (1821), Adam Blair (1822), Reginald Dalton (1824), and Matthew Wald (1824). His Life of Burns appeared in 1828. He was editor of the Quarterly Review, 1824-1853. In 1820 he had married Sophia, daughter of Sir Walter Scott, which led to a close friendship with the latter, and to his writing his famous Life of Scott, undoubtedly one of the greatest biographies in the language. His later years were overshadowed with deep depression caused by the death of his wife and children. A singularly reserved and cold manner led to his being regarded with dislike by many, but his intimate friends were warmly attached to him.John William Cousin, "Lockhart, John Gibson," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 243. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 6, 2018. Family Lockhart was a son of the Rev. John Lockhart(1761-1842), minister of Cambusnethan, by his 2nd wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Gibson, minister of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, and granddaughter, through her mother, of Henry Erskine, 3rd lord Cardross. His father, the 2nd son of William Lockhart, laird of Birkhill, Lanarkshire, had by a previous marriage a son, William, afterwards laird of Milton Lockhart and member for Lanarkshire, The father became minister of the College Kirk in Glasgow in the summer of 1796.Stephen, 47. Youth and education John Gibson was born on 14 July 1794 at the manse of Cambusnethan, the eldest son of the 2nd marriage. He was a delicate child; his health suffered from confinement in the town, and a juvenile illness made him partially deaf for life. He was early sent to the English school, from there to the high school, and at the end of 1805, before he was 12, to the University of Glasgow. He was then recovering from a serious illness brought on by grief at the nearly simultaneous deaths of a younger brother and sister. He was full of fun and humor, though he disliked rough games, and already showed a turn for satire. His fellow-students proved their liking for him by consoling him with an additional Latin prize when he had failed to obtain 1 of the 2 adjudged by the students' votes. His display at the last examination, when he took up an unusual quantity of Greek, procured him a nomination to a Snell exhibition at Balliol College, Oxford.Stephen, 48. He entered Balliol in 1809. He covered the walls of his rooms with caricatures of his friends and himself, and did not spare the authorities. To ridicule a tutor who had made a point of dwelling upon hebraisms in the Greek Testament, Lockhart wrote what appeared to be a Hebrew exercise, to the admiration of his teacher, who showed it to the master of the college. It turned out to be an English lampoon on the tutor in Hebrew characters. Lockhart was a good classical scholar, wrote excellent Latin, and read French, Italian, and Spanish. He took a first class in classics in the Easter term of 1813. Among his contemporaries were H.H. Milman, afterwards the dean of St. Paul's, a lifelong friend, and Sir William Hamilton, who succeeded in diverting him from a brief lapse into hunting and boating. Lockhart cared nothing for sport at school or in afterlife. Hamilton was a warm friend until they were separated by political differences (Quarterly Review, October 1864). ''Blackwood's'' and marriage Lockhart, it is stated, wished to obtain a chaplaincy in the army under Wellington. The war would have been over before he was of age to take orders. His father disapproved the scheme, and after leaving Oxford he studied law in Edinburgh. He became an advocate in 1816, but scarcely took his profession seriously. His strong literary tastes had led him to study German, and he resolved to visit Weimar to see Goethe. Before going he agreed with Blackwood to translate F. Schlegel's lectures on the history of literature. The book was not published till 1838. He became a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, started in April 1817. His earliest articles appeared in the 7th number, when he attacked the Edinburgh Review, the so-called "Cockney School" of poets, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. He was supposed to have had a share in the Chaldee MS. chiefly written by James Hogg. He challenged an anonymous author who had abused him as the "Scorpion" in a pamphlet called Hypocrisy Unveiled, but his opponent declined to come forward. Lockhart did not confine himself to satire, although his satirical articles naturally made the most noise, but wrote some classical articles and poetry, including some of his very spirited translations of Spanish ballads (collected in 1823). In May 1818 the brilliant young tory writer met Walter Scott, who was interested in his talk about Goethe at Weimar. Scott invited him to Abbotsford, and became a warm friend. In 1819 he published Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk,’ an interesting description of Edinburgh society, which, however, gave some offence, especially to the whigs, by its personalities, and perhaps, as Scott said, by its truth. The personalities were harmless enough, as judged by a later standard. In a passage about himself Lockhart apologised indirectly for his excessive love of satire. His knowledge of German literature and philosophy had, he said, strengthened his platonism, and given him a turn for ridiculing the incongruities of life; but he hoped to strike a different note hereafter. On 29 April 1820 Lockhart married Scott's eldest daughter, Sophia. They settled at the cottage of Chiefswood on Scott's estate. Scott often spent the day with them, and they were members of his most intimate domestic circle. During this period he wrote the historical part of the Edinburgh Annual Register. Lockhart wrote novels, and continued to contribute to Blackwood. The novels have considerable merits of style, but show that he was scarcely a novelist by nature. In 1825 Benjamin Disraeli visited him at Chiefswood, bringing him an offer from Murray of the editorship of the projected Representative. Lockhart declined, partly because such a position was then in bad repute. Lockhart in London Murray directly afterwards (13 October 1825) offered him the editorship of the Quarterly Review,’ which since Gifford's resignation had been edited by John Taylor Coleridge. He accepted the post, with a salary of 1,000l. a year, and settled in London at the end of the year in Pall Mall. He afterwards moved to Sussex Place, Regent's Park, where he lived till near his death. The Quarterly Review fully maintained its character under his rule. He is reported to have been admirably business-like and courteous in his dealings with contributors. He appears to have taken more liberties with their articles than would now be relished, a practice in which he only followed the precedent of Jeffrey and Gifford. Lord Mahon (afterwards Stanhope) was so much vexed by the insertions made by Croker in an article upon the French revolution in 1833, that he published the article in its 1st shape as a protest. Lockhart was probably hampered to some extent by the traditions of the ‘Review’ and the influence upon its management of his chief contributor, Croker. Carlyle offered his article on "Chartism" to him in 1839; but Lockhart, though sympathising with its tendency, said that he "dared not" publish it. Carlyle was much impressed, however, by Lockhart, and ever afterwards "spoke of him as he seldom spoke of any man" (Froude, Carlyle in London, i. 164, 172, 288; cf. letter from Lockhart in Croker,'' Memoirs'', 1884, ii. 409).Stephen, 49. While editing the Quarterly Lockhart wrote his admirable life of Burns for Constable's Miscellany in 1828, and superintended Murray's ‘Family Library,’ for which he wrote in 1829, the initial volume, a life of Napoleon. His greatest book, however, was The Life of Scott, published in 7 volumes, the last of which appeared in 1838. He had admirable materials in Scott's letters and journals, but he turned them to such account that the biography may safely be described as, next to Boswell's Johnson, the best in the language. He handed over all the profits to Sir Walter Scott's creditors. Lockhart was made auditor of the duchy of Lancaster in 1843, a post worth about 400l. a year, by his friend Lord Granville Somerset, chancellor of the duchy. This was his only public appointment. He was a strikingly handsome man, tall and slight, with masses of black hair, which suddenly became grey shortly before his death (see description by Griffin in Smiles's Murray, ii. 235). Private life Lockhart was proud and reserved, and gave an impression of coldness in general society. But he could relax among intimate friends, and had the rare charm which accompanies the occasional revelation under such circumstances of a fine mind and character. He suffered severe family sorrows. His eldest boy, John Hugh (the Hugh Little John of Scott's Tales of a Grandfather) was always sickly, and died in 1831. His love of children, as his college friend Christie says (Quarterly Review, cxvi. 448), was like the love of a woman. He was never happier than with this child in his arms, and from the time of his loss an expression of melancholy became habitual with him. He lost his wife in 1837. He was strongly attached to his daughter Charlotte, who on 19 August 1847 married James Robert Hope-Scott. Though he was grieved by the conversion of the Hopes to catholicism, the mutual affection was not diminished. Another son, Walter Scott Lockhart, entered the army in 1846, and was estranged by his own conduct from his father, though they were reconciled shortly before the son's death on 10 January 1853. Lockhart's last years were saddened by his isolation. He withdrew from society, and injured his health by excessive abstinence. He revived a little when, under medical orders, he took more nourishment. But he became prematurely old; his sight failed, and in the spring of 1853 he finally retired from the Quarterly. He spent the winter of 1853-1854 in Italy, and read Dante with enthusiasm. He returned in the summer of 1854, and, after visiting his brother William at Milton Lockhart, went to Abbotsford to be under the care of his daughter and her husband. He gradually sank, and died on 25 November 1854, in the room next to that in which Scott had died. Writing Lockhart's works (besides contributions to ‘Blackwood’ and the ‘Quarterly Review’) are: 1. ‘Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, by Peter Morris the Odontist’ (pseudonym), 1819. 2. ‘Valerius, a Roman Story,’ 1821. 3. ‘Some passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair,’ 1822. 4. ‘Reginald Dalton, a Story of English University Life,’ 1823. 5. ‘Ancient Spanish Ballads, Historical and Romantic, translated, with Notes,’ 1823. 6. ‘Matthew Wald,’ a Novel, 1824. 7. ‘Life of Robert Burns,’ 1828. 8. ‘History of Napoleon Buonaparte,’ 1829. 9. ‘History of the late War, with Sketches of Nelson, Wellington, and Napoleon,’ 1832. 10. ‘Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott,’ 1836–8. 11. ‘The Ballantyne Humbug handled,’ 1839 under Ballantyne, James. Lockhart also edited, with notes, Motteux's translation of Don Quixote, 5 volumes. 8vo, 1822. Recognition Lockhart's Life and Letters (2 volumes, London & New York, 1897) was written by Andrew Lang. A picture in Maclise's Portrait Gallery probably gives a good impression of his appearance. A portrait by Pickersgill is engraved as frontispiece to the 1856 edition of the Spanish Ballads. Robert Scott Lauder painted 2 portraits of Lockhart, one of him alone, and the other with Charlotte Scott. Publications Novels *''Peter's Letters to his Kinfolk'' (with John Wilson). (3 volumes), Edinburgh: Blackwood / London: T. Cadell & W. Davies / Glasgow: John Smith, 1819. *''Valerius: A Roman story''. (3 volumes), Edinburgh: Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1821. *''Some Passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair ... A novel''. Edinburgh: Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1822. *''Reginald Dalton: A story of English university life''. (3 volumes), Edinburgh: Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1823. *''The History of Matthew Wald: A novel''. Edinburgh: Blackwood / London: T. Cadell, 1824. Short fiction *''Noctes Ambrosianae'' (with John Wilson, James Hogg, et. al.). Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1843; New York: Redfield, 1854. Non-fiction *''The Life of Robert Burns''. Edinburgh: Constable / London: Hurst, Chance, 1828; London: Dent / New York: Dutton (Everyman's Library), 1907. *''The History of Napoleon Buonaparte''. London: John Murray, 1830; New York: Harper, 1830. *''Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott''. (7 volumes), Edinburgh: Robert Cadell / London: John Murray / Whittaker, 1837-38. *''Narrative of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, bart.'' London: Dent / New York: Dutton (Everyman's Library), 1906. *''Lockhart's Literary Criticism'' (edited by Margaret Clive Hildyard). Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1931. Juvenile *''The History of the Late War ... for children''. London: 1832. Translated *Friedrich von Schlegel, Lectures on the History of Literature: Ancient and modern. Edinburgh: Blackwood / London: Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, 1818; Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson & Son, 1818. *''Ancient Spanish Ballads: Historical and romantic''. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1823; London: John Murray, 1841. Edited *''Janus; or, The Edinburgh literary almanack'' (edited with John Wilson). Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1826. *''Poetical Works of Walter Scott'' (12 volumes), Edinburgh: Robert Cadell / London: Whittaker, 1833-34; Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, 1869. Letters and journals *Andrew Lang, The Life and Letters. London: John Nimmo / New York: Scribner, 1897. *''The Correspondence and Papers''. Edinburgh: Adam Matthew, 2000. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Gibson Lockhart, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 9, 2016. See also *List of literary critics References * Notes External links ;Poems *"Lines (When youthful faith has fled)" *John Gibson Lockhart at Poetry Nook (7 poems) ;Books * *John Gibson Lockhart at Amazon.com ;About *Lockhart, John Gibson in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] * Lockhart, John Gibson Category:1794 births Category:1854 deaths Category:People from North Lanarkshire Category:Members of the Faculty of Advocates Category:Scottish editors Category:Scottish translators Category:19th-century Scottish novelists Category:19th-century Scottish writers Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Scottish biographers Category:People educated at the High School of Glasgow Category:Advocates Category:Scottish writers Category:Scottish literary critics